US should stop `disrespecting` Prophet to avoid attacks: Pak UN envoy

New York: Pakistan`s Ambassador to the United Nations (UN) Abdullah Hussain Haroon has said the United States should stop disrespecting Prophet Muhammad in order to avoid attacks on their embassies.

"Must you (US) protect the freedom of expression by extremism," The News quoted Haroon, as saying in an interview with News Agencies.

"If you (U.S.) can protect the aspect of Holocaust being sacrosanct, then the Prophet is sacrosanct to us," he added.

Haroon`s remarks came amid violent protests in Pakistan, when thousands rampaged in Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi and Peshawar, burned American flags, and condemned the anti-Muslim film, ``Innocence of Muslims``.

"Is what happened in Pakistan a manifestation of the people of Pakistan? Yes. Of the government of Pakistan? No," Haroon said.

"If the government of Pakistan was acquiescent of what is happening in Pakistan (the violence), they wouldn``t be firing teargas and bullets at the protestors," he added.

Haroon, outraged at the souring relationship between Pakistan and the U.S., said there was a great deal of hostility by the Pakistani people to American policy because of the drone attacks against civilians, and the removal of Osama bin Laden without Pakistani consent, the paper said.

"The Muslim world has been entirely very friendly to America and the West," Harron was quoted, as saying.

"The Muslim world had a strong people-to-people belief at one moment and then the people-to-people belief moved away and became more of a government-to-government belief and then, oppressive governments were given what people would view as a license by the West or America, which then started creating the problem," he added.